Starlink is a game-changing satellite service with a moderate cost of $600 for the antenna and $135 a month for unlimited data anywhere in the US. The boating and RV community are wild about it, and we’re pretty excited too. We’re replacing boat exploration with SUV exploration and camping, but many of the places we want to go are outside of cellular connectivity and James really needs to be connected for work. Starlink, with its excellent connectivity speeds and a lightweight and portable antenna, completely solves the problem.
Below are highlights from April 24th. Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a map with our most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps.
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Starlink Shipment
Position: 47°36.99’N, -122°20.58’W
We’re super-excited that our Starlink arrived today and are looking forward to testing it.
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Starlink Contents
Position: 47°36.99’N, -122°20.58’W
The contents of the Starlink package are pretty simple: a router at left, an antenna and stand at right and a cable between them. Starlink calls their antenna “Dishy McFlatface.” Dishy arrives in the space-saving stow mode, as shown, with the face partially vertical
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Testing Starlink
Position: 47°37.00’N, -122°20.57’W
Setting up the Starlink satellite system in our apartment to test it. The antenna needs a clear view of the sky so we’re not super-hopeful it will work in this location, but we might as well give it a try.
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Dishy McFlatface
Position: 47°37.11’N, -122°20.79’W
When powered up, the antenna rotates from stow mode to a horizontal position to search for satellites.
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Northeast Swivel
Position: 47°37.00’N, -122°20.59’W
After several minutes, the antenna rotated from horizontal to angled, facing northeast.
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Online
Position: 47°37.00’N, -122°20.57’W
Amazingly, Starlink actually was able to connect on the deck of our apartment and over next 24 hours or so downloaded all the firmware updates.
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121 Mbps
Position: 47°37.07’N, -122°20.98’W
Pretty impressive satellite connectivity speed on Starlink at 121 megabits per second (15.1 megabytes per second).
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Working on Starlink
Position: 47°37.02’N, -122°20.81’W
A successful test with James working entirely on Starlink for connectivity.
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Video on Starlink
Position: 47°37.03’N, -122°20.72’W
We even were able to watch a video over Starlink. We’re really impressed with its speed and ease-of-use.
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Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map. And a map of our most recent log entries always is available at mvdirona.com/maps. |
41ms latency? We were on ViaSat for years, and that seems to be off by about 2 orders of magnitude? All the same, very cool!!
ViaSat is geosynchronous system. That’s roughly 37,000 km above the equator so the satellite is a very long way from you and the ground station likely is also a long way from the satellite. Starlink is a low earth orbit system and LEO latencies are remarkably good and can occasionally even beat terrestrial cellular systems.
Got it – it would have been a great thing to have when satellite was our only option. Now we have two competing fiber carriers out here in our very rural area, so I’ve been spoiled and lost track of the options available. Hope you get some good use out of that system :)
For us, it doesn’t take much use for the Starlink to pay for itself. Like you, we’re fiber connected but we like nature and I need to be connected all the time. Starlink gives us beautiful campsites on ridges with an awesome view. It’s worth its weight in gold.
Good that you are now fiber connected but I know you like the outdoors — you still might need a Starlink :-)